krawford

Of my very large collection of war movies, I give this one the second lowest rating of my entire collection. I hesitate to call this a war movie, I think the best way to sum up is to call this a low budget James Bond flick set during WW2. The acting was good, as was the plot / storyline in general, but the detail which essentially creates the suspense and believability of the plot was not thought out in the slightest and ruined what might otherwise have been a good story. What was simply horrible with this film was the direction by Walter Grauman and the awful camera work. In several places it left me feeling like I was watching a cartoon or high school play, it was simply awful and without question it was the direction that killed this film. One scene that comes to mind is Goulet running through a high security "well lit" facility wearing a bright yellow jumpsuit, with German guards everywhere mere feet away, and somehow they fail to see him as he arms several missiles and kills a guard. A small point I know, but there were dozens of similar ridiculous scenes that all combined made the movie just plain dumb.

As a certified war film nut with hundreds of titles in my collection, I can say with some credibility that "The Big Red One" is easily within the top ten war movies ever made. The camera work, acting and script are superb. The combat "special effects" are believable, numerous and equal to anything produced with todays computer wizardry. I know there are many who do not like Director Samuel Fuller's films, or actor Lee Marvin for that matter, but in this film both have outdone themselves. The reconstruction team did a magnificent job in cleaning up the film, as well as adding realism to the audio and piecing the film back together. The end result is far and away better than the original. That's a pretty neat trick!! A must see, must have movie!